Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 25:6
Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they [have been] ever of old.
6. An appeal to Jehovah’s unchangeableness (Mal 3:6). The love of ancient days cannot be exhausted (Jer 2:2; Jer 31:3).
For they have been ever of old ] Lit., for they have been from everlasting. Cp. Psa 103:17; Psa 93:2.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Remember, O Lord – That is, In thy future treatment of me, bring to remembrance what thou hast done, and treat me in the same manner still. The language is that of one who felt that God had always been kind and gracious, and who asked for the future a continuance of the favors of the past. If we would recall, the goodness of God in the past, we should find enough to lay the foundation of prayer in reference to that which is to come. If we saw and fully understood all that has happened to us, we would need to offer no other prayer than that God might deal with us in the future as He has done in the past.
Thy tender mercies – Margin, as in Hebrew: thy bowels. The Hebrew word means the inner parts regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of the affections. See the notes at Isa 16:11.
And thy loving-kindnesses – Thy tokens of favor; thy acts of mercy and compassion.
For they have been ever of old – For from eternity are they. The language is that of a heart deeply impressed with a sense of the goodness God. In looking over his own life, the author of the psalm saw that the mercies of God had been unceasing and constant toward him from his earliest years. In words expressive of warm love and gratitude, therefore, he says that those acts of mercy had never failed – had been from eternity. His thoughts rise from the acts of God toward himself to the character of God, and to His attributes of mercy and love; and his heart is full of the idea that God is always good; that it belongs to His very nature to do good.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 25:6-7
Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies.
Things to remember and to forget
It is only by a figure of speech that we can speak of God as remembering and forgetting. It is an accommodation to our human weakness and ignorance. He who sees all things at a glance has no need to remember, and is incapable of forgetting. Yet God acts towards us as if He both remembered and forgot, and it is enough for us to think of Him in that way. Here the Psalmists mind seemed to sway backward and forward between these two words remember and remember not. And so–
I. We wish to be remembered by God. It is sweet to be had in remembrance by friends. No one of us likes to be forgotten. The religious man desires, above all things, to be remembered of God. It is the sign and proof of His sincerity. If there be no serious and solemn purpose in life; if all its aims and motives and actuating impulses are vulgar, sensual, selfish, there will be no wish to have Gods eye upon it; there will be a sort of relief in the thought that He takes no notice of it, that He passes it by in forgetfulness. But to one whose endeavours are after the higher life the thought of having no place in Gods mind is dreadful.
II. We are happy in the thought that God remembers. But we wish, like the Psalmist, that He could both remember and forget. Memory brought back to David the sins of bygone years. O God, he cried, forget all those crooked and dark things, as I would forget them, and call to mind only Thine own goodness and love. What a strangely mingled cup it is that memory gives us to drink–full to the brim, overflowing with sweetness. Yet we cannot take a deep draught of the cup without coming to bitter ingredients, nay, perhaps to fiery morsels that burn and blister the mouth. Memory is as the Ebal and Gerizim of our lives. The Psalmist wished to separate these two elements of memory. He was afraid lest God should eternalise those old sins by keeping them in mind. He did not like to remember them himself. He wished to think only of the brighter, lovelier things–the Divine, the promising, the hopeful. O God, forget the evil, that I may forget it too. Yes, forget as far as possible the dark scenes of the years that lie behind. Forget the very sorrows and trials and bereavements, unless, indeed, they are so recent and so acute that it would only mock you to ask you to forget them. Bring with you out of the passing years a large and generous legacy of sweet and pure and holy memories. Be sure that all the mercies which we have ever known, all the Divine love and pity and helpfulness which we have ever proved, all that compassion and sympathy of Jesus Christ which have been our stay, will be repeated in the coming days. He will not forget. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.)
The Divine remembrance
An aged Christian, lying on his deathbed in a state of such extreme weakness that he was often entirely unconscious of all around him, was asked the cause of his perfect peace. He replied, When I am able to think, I think of Jesus; and when I am unable to think of Him, I know he is thinking of me.
For they have been forever.—
The eternity of Gods mercies
A fair commendation of Gods mercies from the eternity thereof. His mercies had no beginning, as Himself had none, and shall have no end–From everlasting to everlasting Thou art our God. As the ocean and main sea can never be exhausted, but would furnish water to all the world, if everyone should bring vessels to draw water therefrom; so if we have faith and prayer to seek grace from God, He is all-sufficient in Himself to furnish us all. (A Symson.)
The antiquity of mercy
Let the ancientness of Divine love draw up our hearts to a very dear and honourable esteem of it. Pieces of antiquity, though of base metal, and otherwise of little use or value, how venerable are they with learned men! and ancient charters, how careful are men to preserve them; although they contain but temporary privileges, and sometimes but of trivial moment! How, then, should the great charter of heaven, so much older than the world, be had in everlasting remembrance, and the thoughts thereof be very precious to us; lying down, rising up, and all the day long accompanying us! (J. Cole.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy loving-kindness] The word rachamim, means the commiseration that a man feels in his bowels at the sight of distress. The second word, chasadim, signifies those kindnesses which are the offspring of a profusion of benevolence.
They have been ever of old.] Thou wert ever wont to display thyself as a ceaseless fountain of good to all thy creatures.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
O consider thy own merciful nature, and thy former manifold favours vouchsafed to me, and to other miserable sinners, and do like thyself. Thou hast been gracious to such as I am from the beginning of the world to this day, and to me in particular from my very infancy, as he oft acknowledgeth in this book; yea, from all eternity thou hast had a good will to me, and therefore do not now desist and desert me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6, 7. Confessing past andpresent sins, he pleads for mercy, not on palliations of sin, but onGod’s well-known benevolence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses,…. Not the providential mercy and kindness of God, in the care of him in his mother’s womb, at the time of his birth, in his nurture and education, and in the preservation of him to the present time; but the special mercy, grace, and love of God in Christ: the sense of the petition is the same with that of Ps 106:4; which are expressed in the plural number, because of the largeness and abundance of it, and because of the various acts and instances of it; the Lord is rich and plenteous in mercy, abundant in goodness; his love is exceeding great, and numerous are the ways and methods in which it is declared, both in eternity and in time; and though he can never forget his love, nor the people whom he loves, for they are engraven on his hand, and set as a seal on his heart; yet he sometimes seems, by the conduct of his providence, as if he did not remember it, and had no tender affection for them; and their unbelief is ready to say, the Lord has forgotten to be gracious; and the design of such a petition as this is to entreat a fresh discovery and application of the grace, mercy, and loving kindness of God, and which he allows his people to put him in remembrance of;
for they [have been] ever of old: meaning not only from the time of his birth, and in after appearances of God for him, nor the favours shown to the people of Israel in former times at the Red sea, and in the wilderness and elsewhere, and to the patriarchs from the beginning of the world; but the love of God from everlasting, which appears in the choice of his people in Christ, before the foundation of the world, in the everlasting covenant of grace made with him, and in the setting of him up as the Mediator of it, and in putting his people into his hands, with all grace and spiritual blessings for them before the world began; and which love as it is from everlasting it is to everlasting, and remains invariably the same.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The supplicatory reminiscere means, may God never forget to exercise His pity and grace towards him, which are (as the plurals imply) so rich and superabundant. The ground on which the prayer is based is introduced with ( nam , or even quoniam ). God’s compassion and grace are as old in their operation and efficacy as man’s feebleness and sin; in their counsels they are eternal, and therefore have also in themselves the pledge of eternal duration (Psa 100:5; Psa 103:17).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. Remember, O Jehovah; From this it appears, in the first place, that David was grievously afflicted and tried, so much so that he had lost all sense of God’s mercy: for he calls upon God to remember for him his favor, in such a manner as if he had altogether forgotten it. This, therefore, is the complaint of a man suffering extreme anguish, and overwhelmed with grief. We may learn from this, that although God, for a time, may withdraw from us every token of his goodness, and, apparently regardless of the miseries which afflict us, should, as if we were strangers to him, and not his own people, forsake us, we must fight courageously, until, set free from this temptation, we cordially present the prayer which is here recorded, beseeching God, that, returning to his former manner of dealing, he would again begin to manifest his goodness towards us, and to deal with us in a more gracious manner. This form of prayer cannot be used with propriety, unless when God is hiding his face from us, and seems to take no interest at all in us. Moreover David, by having recourse to the mercy or compassion and goodness of God, testifies that he trusts not to his own merit as any ground of hope. He who derives every thing from the fountain of divine mercy alone, finds nothing in himself entitled to recompense in the sight of God. But as the intermission which David had experienced was an obstacle which prevented his free access to God, he rises above it, by the very best remedy — the consideration, that although God, who from his very nature is merciful, may withdraw himself, and cease for a time to manifest his power, yet he cannot deny himself; that is to say, he cannot divest himself of the feeling of mercy which is natural to him, and which can no more cease than his eternal existence. But we must firmly maintain this doctrine, that God has been merciful even from the beginning, so that if at any time he seem to act with severity towards us, and to reject our prayers, we must not imagine that he acts contrary to his real character, or that he has changed his purpose. Hence we learn for what end it is that the Scriptures every where inform us, that in all ages God has regarded his servants with a benignant eye, and exercised his mercy towards them. (555) This, at least, we ought to regard as a fixed and settled point, that although the goodness of God may sometimes be hidden, and as it were buried out of sight, it can never be extinguished.
(555) “ Et use de douceur envers eux.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Ever of old.Better, from ancient times
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Tender mercies Literally, bowels, as the supposed seat of the tender emotions of pity and compassion. As this is a psychological term, here occurring for the first time in the psalms, it is proper to note that the passions and feelings of men were named after those internal parts of the human body where the particular phenomena of sensations occasioned by them manifested themselves, and modern physiological science confirms the wonderful agreement of this psychical terminology with the entire ganglionic system. No metaphysical philosophy can avoid this figurative use of language. See on Psa 16:7.
Ever of old Literally, from everlasting. The argument is, because the tender mercies of God were from old, or from everlasting, therefore it is in harmony with his settled order of government to show compassion in this case. Hence the phrase, “for thy goodness’ sake,” Psa 25:7
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 530
THE SAINT PLEADING WITH GOD
Psa 25:6-7. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses; for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness sake, O Lord.
AT what precise period this psalm was written, is not certainly known; but probably about the time of Absaloms rebellion. It is evident that Davids sorrows were very great [Note: ver. 16, 17.]: but those which appear to have pressed with the greatest weight upon his mind arose from a view of his past transgressions, and probably from that flagrant iniquity committed by him in the matter of Uriah [Note: ver. 11, 18.]. His mode of pleading with God is that to which I propose, in a more especial manner, to draw your attention, because it affords an excellent pattern for us, in all our approaches to the throne of grace.
Let us notice,
I.
What he desires
He desires God to remember the tender mercies and loving-kindnesses with which he had favoured him in times past. Now this is almost the last petition which we should have expected from a person mourning under a sense of sin, because the kindness of God to us forms one of the greatest aggravations of our sins. God himself made this the ground of his complaint against his people of old: What could I have done more for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? and wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? But David had a just view of Gods tender mercies: he regarded them as pledges of yet richer blessings in reserve for him: and in this view his request deserves particular attention.
Gods mercies are the fruits of his electing love
[God dispenses his blessings to whomsoever he will. He has a right to do so: for there is no creature in the universe that has any claim upon him. As well might the devils complain of him, for not giving to them a Saviour, as any of us complain of him for not bestowing on us the grace which he imparts to others. In what he does, he consults his own glory alone: and, however rebellious man may arraign his counsels, he will be eternally glorified in all that he has done: it will all be found to his praise and honour and glory in the day which he has appointed for the revelation of his righteous judgments. David was sensible of his obligations to God in this respect. He traced all his mercies to their proper source, the eternal counsels of the Deity; who had vouchsafed them to him, not for any righteousness of his, either seen or foreseen, but according to his own purpose and grace, which had been given him in Christ Jesus before the world began [Note: 2Ti 1:9.]. He saw that God had loved him with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving-kindness had he drawn him to the actual enjoyment of his favour.]
In this view they may be regarded as pledges of future blessings
[God is unchangeable, no less in his counsels than in his perfections [Note: Mal 3:6.]. In no respect is there with him any variableness, or shadow of turning [Note: Jam 1:17.]. His gifts and calling are without repentance [Note: Rom 11:29.]. Hence, if he remember his former mercies, he will continue them. He will not forsake his people for his great names sake, because it hath pleased him to make them his people [Note: 1Sa 12:22.]. He has said, I will never, never leave you; never, never forsake you [Note: Heb 13:5.]: so that, if we have indeed experienced his loving-kindness in our souls, we may confidently hope that he will carry on and perfect his work within us [Note: Php 1:6.]: for whom he loveth, he loveth to the end [Note: Joh 13:1.].
Here, then, we see what was in the mind of David when he urged this petition. He had found consolation from this thought in the midst of the deepest distresses. When tempted, on one occasion, to think that God had cast him off, and would be favourable to him no more, but had in anger shut up his tender mercies, so that his promise would fail for evermore, he called to mind Gods wonders of old time, and thus composed his mind, and assured himself that his fears were groundless, the result only of his own infirmity [Note: Psa 42:6; Psa 77:6-11.]. In any troubles, therefore, which we may experience, we shall do well to look back upon Gods mercies of old, and to take encouragement from them to cast ourselves upon him, for the continuance of them.]
Let us next observe,
II.
What he deprecates
Sin, in whomsoever it is found, is most offensive to God
[God cannot look upon iniquity without the utmost abhorrence [Note: Hab 1:13.], both of the act itself, and of the person who has committed it. Hence, when he forgives sin, he blots it out, even as a morning cloud, which passes away, and is no more seen [Note: Isa 44:22.]. God has put it altogether out of his own sight; he has cast it behind his back [Note: Isa 38:17.], into the very depths of the sea [Note: Mic 7:19.], from whence it shall never be brought up again. If it were remembered by him, he must punish it: and therefore, to those who turn unto him, and lay hold on his covenant, he promises, that their sins and iniquities he will remember no more [Note: Heb 8:12.].]
On this account David deprecates the remembrance of his sins
[He specifies, in particular, the sins of his youth, which, though committed through levity and thoughtlessness, were displeasing to God, and must entail his judgments on the soul. Little do young people think what their views of their present conduct will be, when God shall open their eyes, whether it be in the present or the future life. They now imagine that they have, as it were, a licence to indulge in sin, and to neglect their God. They conceive, that serious piety at their age would be premature and preposterous; and that, if they only abstain from gross immoralities, they may well be excused for deferring to a later period the habits that are distasteful to a youthful mind. But these are vain and delusive imaginations. God views their conduct with other eyes. He admits not those frivolous excuses with which men satisfy their own minds. He sees no reason why the earlier part of life should be consecrated to Satan, and the dregs of it alone be reserved for him. He demands the first-fruits as his peculiar portion; and if the first-fruits of the field, much more the first-fruits of the immortal soul. O! my young friends, I entreat you to reflect how different Gods estimate of your conduct is from that which you and your thoughtless companions form; and how bitterly you will one day deprecate his remembrance of those sins, which now you pass over as unworthy of any serious consideration.
But David adverts also to the transgressions which, through weakness or inadvertence, he yet daily committed. And who amongst us is not conscious of manifold transgressions in his daily walk and conversation? Who is not constrained to say, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord: if thou shouldest be extreme to mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? Thus, then, let us also implore God to blot out our sins from the book of his remembrance, that they may never appear against us in the day of judgment, and, if sought for with ever so much diligence, may never, never be found [Note: Jer 50:20.].]
Let us mark yet farther,
III.
What he proposes as the rule and measure of
Gods dealings with him
On the mercy of God he founds all his hope
[Mercy is the favourite attribute of the Deity: it delights to spare the offending, and to save the penitent. It is ready to fly at the call of guilt and misery; and hastens to execute the dictates of Gods sovereign grace. It demands no merit as the price of its blessings: it accounts itself richly recompensed in bringing glory to God and happiness to man. Hence David prayed, According to thy mercy, remember thou me! When speaking of Gods interposition between him and his persecutors, he could say, The Lord hath rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me [Note: Psa 18:20.]. But he would not presume to make his own righteousness the ground of his hope towards God. For acceptance with him, he would rely on nothing but mercy, even the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Herein he has set us an example which we shall do well to follow: in all our addresses to the Most High God, we should adopt his prayer, and say, Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy [Note: Psa 119:124.]. There is solid ground. Thither the most holy of the saints must come; and there the vilest sinner upon earth may find a rock whereon to stand with confidence before God. With such a ground of hope, David could approach his God, and say, Be merciful unto my sin; for it is great!]
From the goodness of God, too, he derives his only plea
[David well knew that God is most glorified in those exercises of mercy which most display his sovereignty and his grace. Hence he desired that God would have respect to his own honour, and shew mercy to him for his goodness sake. Thus must we, also, take our arguments from the perfections of our God; and have all our hope, and plea, and confidence in him alone.]
To this I will only add,
1.
Let us follow the example of David
[We all have need to come to God precisely in the manner that David did. We have no more worthiness in ourselves than he. If judged by any thing of our own, we can have no hope whatever. We must stand precisely on the same ground as he, and urge the very same pleas as he. Our first, and last, and only cry must be,
Mercy, good Lord, mercy I ask;
This is the total sum:
For mercy, Lord, is all my plea:
O let thy mercy come [Note: See the Lamentation of a Sinner, at the end of the Liturgy; and compare Psa 51:1.]!
2.
Let us take encouragement from the acceptance which he found
[His sins, great as they were, were all forgiven. And when did God ever reject the prayer of faith? To whom did he ever say, Seek ye my face in vain? Read the whole of the fifty-first psalm, and let it be a model for your supplications, day and night. Then shall your prayer come up with acceptance before God, and your seed-time of tears issue in a harvest of eternal joy.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
These are all so many witnesses to the same blessed truth; and they all speak to the evidence of human wants, and divine faithfulness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 25:6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they [have been] ever of old.
Ver. 6. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies ] Heb. thy bowels, which thou mayest seem to have lost, but I shall find them for thee. Where are thy bowels and thy compassions? are they restrained? If thou hast forgotten them (but that cannot be) I shall be thy remembrancer, and read them over unto thee out of the register of a sanctified memory.
For they have been ever of old
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Remember. Note the threefold object of this remembrance in verses: Psa 25:6, Psa 25:7.
mercies = compassions. Hebrew. raham. Not the same word as in verses: Psa 25:7, Psa 25:16.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Remember: Psa 98:3, Psa 106:45, Psa 136:23, 2Ch 6:42, Luk 1:54, Luk 1:71, Luk 1:72
thy tender mercies: Heb. bowels, Psa 40:11, Psa 69:13, Psa 69:16, Psa 103:4, Psa 119:77, Isa 55:7, Isa 63:15, Jer 31:20, Luk 1:78, *marg. 2Co 1:3, Phi 1:8, Phi 2:1, Col 3:12, 1Jo 3:17
for they: Psa 77:7-12, Psa 103:17, Psa 106:1, Psa 107:1, Psa 136:11-26, Gen 24:27, Gen 32:9, Exo 15:13, Exo 34:6, Neh 9:19, Jer 33:11, Mic 7:18-20, Luk 1:50
Reciprocal: Gen 49:18 – General Neh 5:19 – Think Neh 13:22 – spare me Job 10:9 – Remember Psa 51:1 – O God Psa 132:1 – remember Isa 63:11 – he remembered Jam 5:11 – the Lord is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 25:6-7. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies O consider thy own merciful nature, and thy former manifold favours vouchsafed to me, and to other miserable sinners, and act like thyself. For they have been ever of old Thou hast been gracious to such as I am from the beginning of the world to this day, and to me in particular from my very infancy; yea, from all eternity thou hast had a good will to me, and therefore do not now desert me. Remember not So as to lay them to my charge; the sins of my youth The sins committed in my young and tender years; my youthful faults and follies. These God frequently punishes in riper years, (Job 13:26,) and therefore he now prays that God would not so deal with him. Nor my transgressions Nor any of my succeeding or other sins; for thy goodness sake Being a sinner, I have nothing to plead for myself but thy free mercy and goodness, which I now implore.